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Subscribe to RSSIt now appears there may be a deal on extending the payroll tax cut.
Sources say the agreement was brokered by the chiefs of staff to House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Reid and Boehner, however, have not spoken yet.
It was hammered out by phone and email since top aides are scattered.
There will be a 5:00 pm ET conference call with House Republican members, in which they will learn the terms of the agreement. There is always the caution that until members give feedback, this remains tentative.
It would be expected that Boehner would announce a deal first later today at the earliest. The president would likely speak later.
Under the agreement, one of the tweaks to the two-month extension of the payroll tax cut would make the payroll reporting requirement easier for small businesses.
If the House acts and passes the short-term extension, the Senate could pass this by unanimous consent without calling senators back in person.
*** UPDATE *** Boehner just released this statement:
“Sen. Reid and I have reached an agreement that will ensure taxes do not increase for working families on January 1 while ensuring that a complex new reporting burden is not unintentionally imposed on small business job creators. Under the terms of our agreement, a new bill will be approved by the House that reflects the bipartisan agreement in the Senate along with new language that allows job creators to process and withhold payroll taxation under the same accounting structure that is currently in place. The Senate will join the House in immediately appointing conferees, with instructions to reach agreement in the weeks ahead on a full-year payroll tax extension. We will ask the House and Senate to approve this agreement by unanimous consent before Christmas. I thank our Members – particularly those who have remained here in the Capitol with the holidays approaching – for their efforts to enact a full-year extension of the payroll tax cut for working families.”
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How did that work out for you Boehner? Talk about being boxed in...irrational "teabaggers" on one side, the American people on the other...got to be uncomfortable.
Now, we wait for the tears.
Boehner,
You better know when to HOLD them... know when to FOLD them...
You got BEAT little buddy, tuck tail and head to your favorite bar-stool (the one with the permanent imprints of his @ss cheeks on it)!
Has the U.S. Geological Survey announced yet where that cave-in registered on the Richter scale?
Great line, JoAnne!
Feisty, in Boehners case he needs to pay more attention to the next line:
Know when to WALK away, know when to RUN!
Al,
I knew I could count on you! ;o)
*popcorn*?
Dontcha cout your money when you're sittin' at the table
there 'll be time for countin' when the deal is done
For me there's no gloating. Fine, make this less of a headache for businesses, heck make the extension for a full quarter. This was a fake concern of Boehner and the House, who if they would have sent a proper bill to the Senate in the first place wouldn't have to pretend to care about businesses now. I'm much more concerned about the dysfunction caused by an extreme minority in one chamber, and how to bring this to a permanent end.
This might be the one that does it. If Boehner were smart (and he's not) he would telling those folks right now that playtime is over.
We MUST get out the VOTE in November & send the tea baggers packing!
This is the CNN headline:
This is the CNN headline, fixed:
It's all about taking responsibility, Johnny...
..p.s... you're toast...
When congress comes back, it will Speaker of the House, Eric "the weasel" Cantor. I think this was the end of Boehner.
@Feisty
Will this hurt your "dead beat daddy" in his district?
Trust me...
There is NO way Dead Beat Daddy Joe will be re-elected!
He only won last time by 296 votes & is running against a strong Democrat; Tammy Duckworth!
BTW: Boehner looks sh!t faced already! lmao!
Johhny needs to swallow a little harder... there is still a crows foot sticking out of his mouth!
@Feisty
I think he just wants this to be all over with. Then he is going to crawl into a bottle for the next few weeks.
Was Tammy Duckworth the Iraqi war vet?
Yes, that's her phinephancy. She's disabled., and a very courageous woman.
Truth be told, I am not looking forward to Cantor being the Speaker. That guy is as slimy as they come.
YUP!
She lost both her legs over there... ;o(
When she ran against Peter Roskam last time in the IL 6th she only lost by 1% in a pretty red district!
The new district (the 8th) is much more purple!
You know what really funny about this, all three of them are establishment republicans, and they all just got finished bitch-slapping each other. ROTFLMAO!
I have to agree though Cantor or McConnell , whichever comes back as the new speaker other than John "Who's Your Daddy Now" Boehner
Anyone know if Boehner is in a safe Republican district?
I heard grumblings a couple of months ago about a tea bagger challenge!
I believe Grover had his filthy fingers in it...
Feisty & newday
Ohio's 8th District has been 2-1 republican since 1938, actually in '96 big john ran unopposed, in '08 he won by better than 2-1 just to give you an idea.
Thanks for the info Egilman!
Happy Holidays to you & yours!
Boehner folded like a cheap suit. So Boehner, do your job, pass the extension like a big boy. Then you can go out and get drunk and have a good cry.
Worst Speaker ever!
You all don't even know what is in the "proposed" deal. Yet you all come in here and talk about people folding... A little presumptuous I think.
And why is it when there is no deal the Republicans are trying to screw the middle class, but hen they find something they can aggree on, then they've folded? It's really not a game, It really should be about doing what's right, not what's popular. And cutting funding to Social Security is not right, but for some reason you all think it's popular...
They fold whenever they do anything at all to help the economy or the middle class and working poor...This time they did both and for the tripple whammie they made a deal with the darkie-in-chief whom they despise..
poor poor poor teabaggers and 1%ers
I would like to know why Reid is just kicking the can down the road and not make the extension good for the whole year?? Now in two months, he's going to be yanking the public around again.... Instead of asking why doesn't Boehner do his job, perhaps the question should be...why doesn't Reid do his job?
Sheesh! Do you think Reid decides these things all by his little lonesome? It's the deal Republicans and Democrats hammered out in the Senate. I get so sick of questions that people shouldn't need to ask.
Boehner is always talking about what a poor leader President Obama is and then Boehner can't get anything done and calls for the president to come and help him. So if Boehner is such a good leader if only in his own mind, why does he need President Obama to help him?
I don't remember Nancy Pelosi crying and whining how she couldn't get things done without the president.
Nobody except the republican representatives of the 1% want to cut funding to social security. General fund money was to replaced the social security money not coming in. This tax holiday is a stimulus to our sagging economy. Take $100 a averaged number per worker which seems like a small amount per month and times it by 160,000,000 people spending that extra and it comes to $16,000,000,000 per month being added to our economy.
This was something for the people and the economy, not a chance to stick some other god awful requirement from the tea party to do something for the people.
For the rich republicans 1% a $100 a month is chump change, but to us workers living from month to month a $100 is a lot of money.
I saw a great bumper sticker today:
REPUBLICANS: Working like crazy to save the lazy!
Well...Reid IS the leader of the Senate...are you saying he can't see what's best for the country and avoid another meltdown in just 2 months? Sheesh...I get so tired of reading comments from posters that answer questions they have no business answering...
JK,
You need to go off somewhere and get your head screwed on right. I'll repeat what I said above: Do you think Reid decides these things all by his little lonesome?
On second thought, don't answer the question. You're not interested in the answer; you're only interested in arguing. And that makes uninterested in anything you have to say.
Jack in P. you say this about Reid yet you expect more from Boehner? How very hypocritical!!!
Thank you George!! That is what I was trying to get Jack to own up to...but I guess it got lost on him...
Merry Christmas! :)
It seems Jackie got caught in another liberal 'foot in mouth' situational irony! That's why I like reading liberal posts so much, for the comedy value... which reminds me aren't they coming out with a movie about the Three Stooges?
Instead of Larry, Curly, and Moe.... it'll be Barry, Harry, and Sleepy Joe!
The reason you couldn't say it, JK, is that you are totally bereft of intelligence. That's goes for you, too, Hayduke--and it goes triple for you, Free Market.
Here's what I said in another post yesterday evening:
Your critique of the process has been answered ad nauseum by others on this Vine. All I will say is that "it takes two to tango". The Senate bill passed with only 10 Nays--which means that nearly 40 Republicans voted for it. McConnell didn't object to Harry Reid adjourning the Senate because he apparently had an agreement with Boehner that the House would vote on the bill. The Senate left town, and suddenly Boehner found that if he brought the bill to the floor enough Republicans would vote with Democrats to pass it. So he was the one who thwarted a democratic process, and now he is the one who is trying to get everyone in the Senate to come back to town. And right now McConnell is saying No to Boehner and telling him to pass the damned bill and work out the differences in conference during the next two months. And, at least 5 more Republican Senators have joined in and told Boehner to pass the damned thing. So, I totally disagree with you that this is a matter of the Democrats holding the Republicans hostage. If you want to talk hostage, look no further than Boehner.
Boehner got caught with his pants down around his ankles. He now needs to man-up and take his lickings. That's politics. Too bad you don't like the outcome. It doesn't change the fact that there is more than one way for the democratic process to take place.
Spin it any way you want it Brutus, the facts are Boehner caved and the Republlicans stepped in it big time. You can join them if you like in talking about what a beautiful flower will grow from the pile of crap you just stepped in but don't expect me to buy it. Besides, why was the Wall Street Journal begging Boehner to climb down from his ledge if he was in the right? As for Republicans screwing over the middle class, they've been doing that for the past 30 years. Do you think it is any coincidence that the unions that they show such venomous hatred for are almost entirely populated by middle class working people? As for the "underfunding of Social Security" canard, the money will come from the general fund, just like the money to cover the Bush tax cuts did.
Me thinks when the reps went home, they found out that the folks there were none too happy with them. Cave in time.
We didn't send you there to make deals with that n-gg-r
The teabaggers and nut-jobs are fuming now...
That phone call is going on now. Wonder how that's going for the orange man and the weasel?
Orangey will probably be crying after the Koch.Bros and Karl Rove tell him about their plans for their super-pacs now...You do deals with Obama no ads for you,hell maybe even against you in the primary...
Poor Mr. Speaker...apparently his Chief of Staff has a bigger set of kiwis than he does.
This morning Willard had no posistion on the middle class extension. Wonder if he has one now?
Oh, don't worry, I'm sure Willard will cover all his bases after the resolution to the immediate crisis.
I'm sure Romney has no clue what they are talking about - and he'll be for it..oops...against..no..for...no...wasn't there a TV show about him...FLIPPER.....
Really, they the house are going to rewrite a bill, and make the Senate come back to Washington to approve. Why not just approved the one that the senate just approved
The Senate doesn't need to come back, Susanbsbi. They can do it by Unanimous Consent--which is a polling done by fax or email. It just needs everyone to either agree or abstain. It is very unlikely that anyone would say no because then it would mean that everyone would have to return to vote on a bill that's going to pass 90-10, and no one wants to do that.
Last note on this subject. Although Democrats try to claim victory, at what cost? The Social security draining tax cuts continue for two months. The devil will be in the details when the House votes on the Senate bill but then trys to reconcile it in conference. So Obama has to show that the XL pipeline is not in the national interest. How is he going to convince that it is not in the national interest to the general public and republicans. To me a green and environmentalist sure the pipeline is not worth the risk of the oils spills. They will say he is against domestic drilling (even though it is not), they will say he wants to be beholden to the middle east oil countries. The pipeline will be set through the most cost effective route a triangular route through the Sandhills and over the Ogalalla aquifer. The House negotiators will not accept it any other way. The GOP won more then the democats did. The GOp will not agree to anything more substantial than 2 months without the XL pipeline immediately routed through sensitive areas.
I also heard that the unemployment benefits will be cut from a max of 99 weeks to 79 weeks per the house bill. The Devil is in the details. If by a miracle the payroll tax cuts are extended for a year it just weakens SS. SS is for the poor and elderly, I want it to be there when I retire. The GOP goes along with this because their grand plan is to have everyone over 55 opt out of SS, remember the Ryan plan? Small short term win for the democrats at the cost of a huge longtime loss.
Is all this worth two months extra in your pocket at $80 a pop?
Wheres all our conservative friends at?
They need post there spin..errrrr I mean what they hear on FoxPac errrr.... I mean what ever Bull$h!t they want sell us on how this really went down.
Really not even a copy and paste.
Speaking as someone who's HAD to compile payroll taxes for a small business, I'm glad to hear there aren't changes to the reporting structure - and speaking as someone who would've been adversely affected by a sudden payroll tax increase immediately after the holidays (along with so, so many others) I'm just as glad to discover we've all got a two-month breather.
For the "Gross Odd People" (GOP), and the "Really Not Competent" (RNC) alot of things caved in a long time ago. The GOP have had a major cave in on their lack of loyalty to their nation and their President. The Tea Beggers in the GOP Congress caved in on defending the Middle Class, the Working Poor, the disabled, and the elderly. The GOP "Social Sadists" have caved in on the US Constitution, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the US Bill Of Rights. Culturally, the GOP Sadists have caved in on racial intolerance, religious intolerance, social intolerance, and economic intolerance. The GOP "Hoodlum's On The Hill" have voted to cave in on Social Security, tax breaks for 99% of Americans, and any financial regulations for Wall Street Bankers/Investors. Hey! Hey! Ho! Ho! The GOP "Cave In" Party has to go!!
Attempting to get job security in US Congress and Senate by hurting the country via ceaseless delays- is a horrible way chosen by Boehner and his associates. Throw them out.
The GOP sealed their fate a long time ago when all they did was fillibuster everything that came down the path which Pres. Obama wanted passed. They have fought him every step of the way. Even when Dems. had the majority in the house, everything was a fight to make the Pres. look bad. People are getting disgusted with all this. Every cabinet member that was nominated was met with a NO. I hope it gets better soon.
A commettee will save us all. Right!!!!!! In the business world, when to sides of a contract become dead locked, both sides bring in an arbitrator and both sides sign on the line that he/her decision becomes binding for both sides. In this case it would become the law. Now who is in a position to be an unbiased arbitrator? Those one way right wingers appointed by the GOP will never bend even a little bit. So the vote in the house will remain the final one. This means that super committee 2 will also get nothing done and the end of February will means the end of the tax cut and the end of unemployment funding.
Binding arbitration is what we need. Let The guy we, the majority voted for be the guy. Obama for arbitrator!!!!!
Now when the congress gets back the fight will begin.
The real question is do we tax the poor or do we tax the rich? Republicans your choice.